Siha
by zenith020388
Summary: A warrior-angel. Fierce in wrath. A tenacious protector. These things, Commander Shepherd is. Broken. Alone. Scared. These things, Mia Shepherd is. Two people. One body. And a galaxy depending on one of them. The question is, which one.
1. Chapter 1

**Siha**

**Prologue**

Inky black shot through with streaks of incandescent blue. An eternity of travel time, flashing by in an instant. Lives blinking in and out to travel the distances she watched pass. It seemed to her that the galaxy had shrunk, even in the short time that had passed since last she saw her home.

Of course, she was supposed to be dead.

Several times over, in fact.

In her relatively short military career, she had stood against impossible odds no less than three times. On Elysium, as a young marine Lieutenant, against a tide of Batarian slavers. On the Citadel, as a new Lieutenant-Commander, against the Reaper vanguard Sovreign, and the possessed remains of Saren Arterious, the rogue Spectre. And, most recently, as a resurrected free agent, financed by Cerberous, against a race of genetically repurposed Protheans, and a half-formed human-Reaper hybrid.

At age twenty-nine, Mia Shepard had done more for the galaxy than any individual ever, in the history of sentient life. At least, since the Reapers had last purged the galaxy of sentient life...

She had beaten every challenge before her. Beaten the odds at every turn. Hell, she'd returned from what was to be a suicide mission not only alive, but sufferring no casualties among her chosen crew, even rescuing a number of survivors from previous attacks.

Why, then, did she find herself locked away in her cabin aboard the Normandy SR2, a pillow clutched to her chest as she fought to keep herself from crying?

She was two people in one body. A body rebuilt from ash and ice, built to fight and kill and protect humanity. She was Mia. And she was also Spectre Shepard. One, a war-torn hero of humanity and the Citadel Council races alike. The other…

She had never stopped being the shy, scared little girl, who had watched her mother command a starship. The girl who was convinced it was her fault when her parents separated, and her father left, only to die a few months later in a bar fight.

She had risen to the challenge in boot camp by sheer force of determination, and graduated at the head of her class in officer training. But behind it all, she had wanted nothing more than to ring the bell. To make it all stop. Only the memory of her mother, proud and strong, had pushed the weakness away, and set her on her path in life.

And there she was, through the fire and agony and death, scott-free and alive.

And crying.

There was little to cry about. The crew she had gathered for this mission, the crew she had fought and bled with since being revived by the Lazarus Project, had all survived. By some unbidden miracle, she had both saved most of her crew from the Collecters, and her combat team had pulled off the impossible, and survived.

She would get to hold Jack again, and help the tormented woman continue to cope with the horrors of her life. She would be able to continue her conversations with Legion, learning more of the Geth and teaching the synthetic about organic life. She would get to see Grunt continue to grow, and thrive, and become the Warlord he was destined to be. She could shake Zaeed's hand and watch him move on with his life.

And she would get to be there for Thane... When he...

And there it was. The answer she didn't want to admit to.

She was going to lose them anyway.

It had been the same way with the first crew. Her allies… Her friends…

Granted, they had thought her dead and gone, but still…

Ashley had been appalled by her on Horizon. Her Commander, working with Cerberus?

Wrex had chosen to remain on Tuchanka, to continue his struggle to unite the warring Krogan clans.

And Liara…

It was one of those moments where Commander Shepard had faltered, and Mia had been allowed to shine through. The jump to Ilos. Sweet, innocent Liara…

All she had wanted was one night. One night, to be in the arms of someone whocared about her. One night, to know she wouldn't have to be alone. One night, to be normal again.

One night with someone she loved.

One night, before she died.

That night, 'Commander Shepard' was not present. She was just Mia. And Liara had accepted her, body, mind and soul, as she was.

But she had survived.

Suddenly, her feelings weren't just something she left behind, for her love to remember her by. They were there, and she had to deal with them. And she was prepared to. And they were happy, together. For a short time.

Until she died for real.

Liara had not taken well to her 'death'. Joker had filled her in on some of the events in her missing two years, and Garrus and Tali had chimed in where they could, but there was little they could tell her about Liara. The 'young' Asari had still been grieving when she had vanished into space, never to be heard from by the group again.

Until she was revived. And told exactly where to find her lover.

But she was not the same person when she arrived on Illium. And Liara had changed nearly as much.

Gone was the sweet, innocent scientist she had known. In her place stood a cold, broken woman, wearing her face and moving her skin, but a hollow, broken person.

Just like Shepard.

She had tried. Oh merciful Goddess, she had tried. And there had been a flicker of something, for a moment. Something hot, and primal. But it was smothered, put out as they had parted with little more than a small hug and some words exchanged.

Life moved on. 'Commander Shepard' was on a mission, and would not be delayed by mere emotion.

Until she met Thane. The mysterious, almost poetic Drell assassin who seemed to stare straight into her soul from the first word they exchanged. And she had valiantly tried to piece her broken heart back together for the dying man. In her, it seemed, he found some measure of peace, and Mia could not deny any being any sort of peace in their dying days.

But, as before, her heart failed her when it was needed the most. The jump through the Omega 4 relay. Thane had come to her cabin, and asked to stay. He admitted his fear of death, and of his weakness. All too much like her own fears. And she had wanted to say yet. Really and truly. But hear heart remembered all too well the past, and longed for someone else.

Liara had touched her soul. In a way that she knew nobody ever would again.

And Thane knew. Even before she opened her mouth to speak, he knew. He felt it, even where he longed for her. And he knew that she would never love him like she still did Liara.

She had almost completely lost her composure when he told her so. She wept openly for causing him such pain, but her merely shrugged it off in his manner, and offered a sympathetic ear and a shoulder to cry on. She told him how deeply she cared for him, very much so, but he simply smiled his small, sad smile, and told her not to worry.

"I do not begrudge you your happiness, Siha." He stated calmly, his own pain forgotten, or ignored. "Love is infinite, and knows no boundaries. You have great strength, but even the strongest may only be so for a time before it begins to wear on them."

She tried to apologise. She was supposed to be helping him, after all. Taking care of her crew. Of her _friends_. It was her duty to be strong for him. But he had simply shook his head at her and placed one strong finger over her babbling lips. "I think, tonight, that you are perhaps the one who needs _my_ help. And I give it freely."

He had held her until she had fallen asleep in his arms, and she didn't wake until Joker's voice came over the comm, and 'Commander Shepherd' was needed once again.

And again, she survived. And she had gotten her people out alive.

And once again, she was left to deal with feelings in the air. Feelings she had expected to leave behind, and move on from this plane of existence.

But it was not to be.

And now, she wept, until there were no more tears, and the darkness claimed her.

A/N: Mia Shepard is a Paragon/Spacer/War Hero/Sentinel(Medic/Guardian Spec) with cross training in Sniper Rifles and Biotic Barrier. Full paragon in all respects, for all decisions.

So, this begins a rewrite/reconception o the ME story that I had written so long ago. Yes, I only posted the prologue, but I feel that the rest of what I had written, and you have not seen, will require a significant rewrite to make it work. And so, it will be done.


	2. Chapter 2

**Siha**

**Chapter 1**

**A Shepard Must Tend To Her Flock, And At Times, Fight Off The Wolves...**

Sleep left her slowly, and she sighed heavily as the ceiling panels of her quarters blurred into view. She rolled over gently, so as not to jostle the heavy bandaging on her right shoulder. The pain was almost all gone, from the bullet wound at least. The pain in her chest would take much more coaxing to leave.

The motion of her sitting up triggered the ever so slightly irritating tweet of the ship's intercom, and she frowned in discomfort. "What?" She snapped, perhaps a little more crankily than was strictly necessary. Commander Shepard was always awake before Mia was.

"**Good afternoon, Commander." **EDI's smooth voice came over the speakers, her holopanel flickering on in the office area of her quarters. Since Joker's removal of the security buffers on her programming, the ship's AI had discovered a certain lack of aesthetic quality in her former projection, and scrapped it. Now, instead of a talking head-shaped ball of light, a small woman stood on the panel, dressed in a flowing gown over luscious curves, with a head full of curly hair. **"I have progress reports for you on all aspects of the repair cycles, as well as updates on the injured personnel."**

Mia heaved another laboured sigh as she stood up painfully, wobbling slightly as she steadied herself. She didn't bother to reach for her bathrobe as she made for the shower. It was one of those small luxuries that she grudgingly thanked Cerberus for including into the designs of the _Normandy SR2_. Actual liquid showers made life in space all the more tolerable for longer periods of time.

"Fine, give me the reports. Personnel?"

"**Garrus and Jacob have both left Dr. Chakwas' care against medical orders to assist with repairs and maintenance, and Engineer Daniels' surgery was successful. Her eye has been replaced, and she is recovering well. Jack's surgery is complete as well, but she has retreated to the engineering hold and refuses to communicate with any and all crew members."**

Mia rested her forehead on the cold tile wall, her mind flinching even as her body relaxed under the hot stream of water. "I'll go talk to her first, then. What's the status of the 'remodel'?"

"**Purging of Cerberus monitoring devices eighty-seven percent complete. Legion has been most helpful in locating and disabling the Illusive Man's eyes and ears. Additionally, Yeoman Chambers has finished destroying the last of the Cerberus imagery from the decks. She has apparently decided that your distaste for Cerberus has spread through enough of a crew that having to see their logo is a detriment to the crew's psychological health. She has even gone so far as to collect and destroy all of the Cerberus uniforms on the ship, and is now in the process of designing a new uniform for the crew."**

Shepard groaned out loud at that. One couldn't help but like the enthusiastic young woman, but that same enthusiasm could be hazardous if left unchecked. She wasn't sure if she would ever live down the disaster that had been her thirtieth birthday party, an event that had occurred before she had the chance to really get to know her new crew. Chambers meant well, but evidently her poor judgement had been even more impaired by the trauma of almost being dissolved into organic goo in the Collector's Hive.

"**Don't worry, Commander. From what I have observed of Ms. Chambers' tastes, the design is rather tame. The design is clearly military, but she has avoided a prejudicial design by drawing inspiration from the militaries of all of the council races." **The ever so slight tinge of humour in the AI's synthesized voice was grating on her nerves. **"Grunt, Zaeed and Miranda have returned from Omega with the last of the necessary supplies required to get the weapons systems online, and Tali'Zorrah has completed the repairs to the main engine core, enabling us to attempt FTL once more. Lieutenant Moreau is requesting a destination as soon as possible. I have already commented on his impatience with four witty remarks and three sarcastic ones. He is not amused."**

That made her smile, at last. "If I didn't know any better, EDI, I'd say you were developing a sense of humour."

"**That is unlikely, Commander."**

"Right. Tell Joker…" She let her voice trail off, frowning. Where would they go? What was her next move? Her heart thumped painfully in her chest as it told her exactly what she wanted, but she knew, in her head at least, that there were other issues that had to be dealt with. "An uninhabited planet, first. Scrub the Cerberus insignia off of my hull, and do a detailed damage survey. Then, we're headed to the Citadel. Give him three days to get us there."

"**It will be done, Commander."** The holographic woman cocked her head slightly. **"Is there anything else I can do for you this afternoon?"**

Mia rolled her eyes as she turned off the water, wrapping a towel around her middle and wringing out her long copper hair. "No, thank you. That will be all, EDI." The tiny hologram bowed slightly before flickering off, the computer's attention shifting elsewhere on the ship as the commander stepped out into her bathroom. Her cabin felt cold, despite the environmental controls maintaining a comfortable twenty five degrees Celsius. It always did, and in her heart of hearts, she knew why.

She bit her tongue, forcing the thoughts down. _Not how I want to start my day, thank you..._ She thought bitterly. The mirror set into the wall didn't help her thoughts, though. She looked like a mess, even after almost a full day since the suicide mission had passed. Large, angry bruises ran up one side of her torso, where an assault rifle had penetrated not only her shields, but her tech armour as well, thankfully ricocheting off her hardshell. A half dozen shots had slammed into her armour, leaving a series of now yellow-purple marks in her stomach. A line of red was burned through one side of her head, around the blistered, raw skin her normally copper hair was burned and blackened from where a particle beam had sliced through her defenses.

But her injuries would heal, and even her hair would grow back, thanks in no small part to the upgraded medbay. What wouldn't heal was the dead, beaten look in her eyes. She dried off slowly, taking comfort in the last few minutes she could be alone for the day. She did, after all, have a crew to take care of. Her work clothes had been sonic-cleaned, and she slipped into them quickly. She had taken to wearing the unmarked, civilian work garb after Illium...

She stepped on the thought almost before it occurred.

_Not today... Smile, and get on with it._

And she did.

Shepard stepped into the lift, heading immediately to the engineering deck, for Jack's hold. The younger biotic had become a fast friend since she'd rescued her from the Purgatory prison facility, Shepard's calm forethought breaking slowly through the tattooed woman's rage. Jack had opened up to her one night, not long after they had destroyed the facility that had made her what she was. She had shared an untouched portion of her being with Mia, and that trust was something that Shepard did not take lightly.

Jack was laying on her cot, her arms stretched up towards the bulkhead above her. Or, rather, what was left of her arms.

Jack had been part of the ground team left to hold the line while Shepard's team had moved on to meet the Reaper, and had saved the lives of the entire holding party by throwing up a combined biotic barrier with Samara to hold back a wave of Collectors while the others reloaded and found better cover. Unfortunately, having exerted too much effort getting the assault team through the clouds of seekers, Jack's barrier faltered first, and the tattooed ex-con caught a particle beam across her right arm, burning the whole limb off just below her elbow.

The stump of her arm was swathed in fresh white bandages, a small monitoring device clamped onto her elbow to administer periodic doses of localised painkillers, but that was about the only thing that was fresh about the dazed-looking woman. She was still in the same clothes she had worn, blood and grime and bits of insect shell caked onto the fabric and her skin alike. She didn't appear to notice, or care. Her eyes stared blankly at the stump, and she said nothing when her friend and CO stepped off the last step and into her hold.

Mia watched as she bent her elbow, her heart breaking as she watched the useless lump of arm wiggle pathetically. Jack had come so far since they'd picked her up from Purgatory. They'd shared a warm moment a few days after the destruction of the base where she had been 'created', and Jack had finally opened up to her. They had cried together, and she had held the tattooed biotic for a long while.

Shepard took Jack's remaining hand in hers, and she could feel her young friend shaking, ever so slightly. And she knew no words needed to be said. She sat on the bed and gathered Jack in her arms, and they stayed there in silence. But while Jack was allowed to drop her mask, this time Mia kept hers rigidly in place. Her own pain was set aside, and she offered everything else she had.

Jack shattered like spun glass. The hardened, angry veneer crumbled away, and the tortured child shed her tears in the arms of the only person she had ever felt safe with. Shepard had shown her another way to be, another person she could become. And she found, after all her decisions and missions and trials and errors, that she _liked_ that person.

Shepard was her salvation. Her safe place.

If only she knew that her leader was just as, if not more, fragile as she.

Ten minutes passed before the silent sobs passed, and another five for the words to leave the distraught amputee's lips. "I'm sorry…"

Shepard shook her head, gently rocking Jack slightly. "You have nothing to be sorry about. You held the line, and saved the lives of every one of your crewmates. It's me who should be apologising, for making you fight after holding off the seeker swarms." Jack said nothing, so she pressed on. "If I had sent you back with Zaeed and the rest of the crew, you might still have both hands."

Jack sniffed loudly, holding in a cynical laugh. "I wouldn't have gone."

"I know you wouldn't have. And that is why I trusted you to know your own limit."

There was a long silence between the pair before Jack finally sat up, wiping her tears away with her remaining hand. "I… I should go clean up…" She said, trying to extract herself from Mia's arms. "I'm a mess… And my hair is starting to grow back in…"

It was true. Miniscule brown hairs were just poking out of her scalp. "I can help you, if you need me to." Shepard asked, allowing her charge to sit up a bit straighter, but maintaining a light grip on her shoulder.

Jack blinked once and her cheeks turned ever so slightly pink. "Nah… I think I might let it grow in for a while. Maybe… Maybe it's time for a new me…" She turned and left before Shepard could say anything.

Mia sat for a moment, the younger girl's words hanging in the air like the scent of a dead animal. _"You don't be anybody you don't want to be, sweetheart…"_ Her mother's words floated, unbidden, across her thoughts, and she stifled another heavy sigh. Jack's path would only get harder for the young biotic to discern, a feeling that Shepard knew all too well.

Shepard paused on the stairs, examining a bit of grime left behind by one of Jack's boots as she collected her thoughts. It was exchanges like that, she knew, that set her apart from regular COs. It had been her way since the beginning of her military career, and she had been reprimanded for it on more than one occasion, though never to the point of a formal charge or court martial. But she didn't care.

Or rather, she did. Perhaps too much for the Alliance brass' tastes.

Mia caught a glimpse of Grunt and Zaeed in the forward cargo hold as she ascended the stairs from Jack's den. The two of them seemed to be arguing loudly over something as they worked on a number of large panels, Zaeed cutting them to various sizes while Grunt heaved them into separate piles. As she watched, Grunt threw a comment over his shoulder which caused the aged merc to throw his hands in the air, shouting something back at the krogan, who in turn dropped the plate he was holding. Both of them paused for a moment before, returning to work, still throwing arguments back and forth.

Tali was seated on a bench when Mia entered engineering proper, with Miranda of all people bent over a small port in her environmental suit. The young Quarian had been, as ever before, an integral part of the effort into the hive ship, having led the strike team through the vent system alongside the strike team. Though no slouch with electronics herself, Mia knew that Tali's aptitude passed hers by leaps and bounds, and she trusted no one else to get such an important job done.

"Just reattach the leads." Tali replied, her own voice strained and tired. "If I can't get the temperature controls repaired in the next hour, I'll have to spend the rest of the day in the forward airlock while I strip the systems and rewire them myself."

"And you'd rather not have to sit naked on a cold bulkhead all day, am I right?" Both women looked up, startled by their CO's 'sudden' appearance. "Commander!" "Shepard!"

Zap! "Ouch!"

The commander allowed herself a small, satisfied smile as Miranda stuck a scorched finger in her mouth. "Relax, you two." She said calmly, sitting down on Tali's other side, her own omni-tool flickering to life as she ran a quick scan of Tali's suit. "I'm just making my usual rounds. Is your coolant reservoir still in the same spot?" Tali's luminous eyes blinked at her through the purple-tinted visor for an instant before she nodded, shifting her hips slightly to allow better access.

"How are you feeling, aside from the heat?" Mia asked, cracking open the tiny panel and digging into the concealed circuitry with a miniscule probe, manifested from her omni-tool.

"All things considered, I'm fine." She replied. "My barriers are fried, though, so I'm grounded until I can affect a full repair, but I can still carry out my duties..."

"Good, good... What about you, Miranda?"

"Minor bruising and a killer headache." The pale operative replied, not looking up. "Nothing I can't handle, Commander."

Shepard nodded, satisfied with her answer for the moment. "Joker's gonna set us down somewhere so we can take a closer look at the exterior of the ship." She said after a moment, twisting a miniscule screw and tapping something into her keypad. Tali's suit gave a small hiss, and the Quarian sighed a small "Keelah..." in relief as her internal temperature began dropping back to a tolerable level. "There. That should help. Is there anything down here you need my help with?"

Tali shook her head. "Not anymore, Commander. We've had Zaeed and Grunt bringing us parts all morning, so we're a little ahead of schedule. They're down in the main hold right now. The man's actually pretty good with a welding torch."

"I saw that. Keep me apprised of the situation, please." Mia replied, standing. "Now, Miranda, I want to read your report to the Illusive Man before you send it out, and-"

"What report?" The woman asked with a slightly smug smirk. "We lost that channel, Shepard. I'm pretty sure I said something about resigning."

The Commander smiled right back. "Maybe. But I want to at least maintain some level of cooperation with Cerberus. Since we're taking out all their surveillance equipment on my ship, you're going to have to be the point of contact."

"Why, exactly?"

"I need every available resource in the coming months. As little as I trust the Man himself, he is too big a player to ignore. I can't afford to burn that bridge, no matter how it will look to the Council. Just... Set up a checkpoint, if you will. You are going to 'covertly' maintain contact with him for the time being. Unless you have a problem with that?" It wasn't a threat. Not really.

Miranda frowned, and Mia could see the conflict in her eyes. "I... I don't know... Let me think about it for a while, Shepard."

"Good enough for me." The redhead replied. "Don't work too hard, ladies. That's an order." She smiled as she walked away.

_Almost done... _She sighed heavily as the lift rose slowly up to the main crew deck. She had skipped a number of the crew in her rush to help Jack, but now there were only five people, and one Geth, standing between her and a few hours of loneliness and self-hatred. _Yay..._

Samara, somewhat surprisingly, was assisting doctor Chakwas in the medbay when Shepard stepped off the lift. Evidently the Justicar had picked up some medical training during her centuries of life, as she was checking and re-splinting a broken arm with no hesitation in her movements. The entire second deck was quiet, the crew noticeably subdued as they went about making repairs to the galley and medbay. Chakwas herself was too busy to talk, stepping over and around patients and repair workers alike, moving almost fluidly from the broken arm Samara was wrapping to a deep cut on another crewman's leg, to a third crewman, who had lost his legs from the knee down before he had been pulled from his pod in the Hive. Shepard took a quick look, but remained out of the way. Best she not interfere with anything, she figured.

Garrus and Jacob were crawling in the main workings of the cannon battery, working steadily together on affecting minor repairs wherever they were needed. The pair had evidently bonded during the defense of the access point, Garrus having proven himself an apt leader, gaining the confidence of the ex-Alliance, and recently ex-Cerberus, marine, and Jacob having shown marksmanship and dilligence that had impressed the Turian agent. Jacob stood up and saluted as she approached, Garrus adding an acknowledging nod.

"I hear you're both out here against doctor's orders." She stated calmly, watching both males flinch ever so slightly. "Need I remind you that the ship's physician outranks even me when it comes to medical issues?"

"I'm fine." Came the expected reply, in stereo.

"What's your status, gentlemen?" She asked with a wry smile.

"Same as always, Shepard, just with a few extra scars." Garrus replied, grunting as he shifted a section of bulkhead back over the now-finished wiring. "Ready for the worst, hoping for the best."

Shepard chuckled, examining the patch. "I expect no less from you, old friend." She said, allowing herself to feel a little relaxed for an instant. "And you, Jacob?"

"Five by five, ma'am. Two broken ribs and a hole in my off hand. Nothing to be concerned about." The man replied, his omni-tool popping up on his right arm, glimmering over a fresh bandage. "I'll send you the requisition requests, but there's nothing much left that is vital, and we've got the resources to repair what is. It's a good thing we upgraded everything when we did."

"I like to be prepared." Mia nodded, glancing down as her own tool chirped upon receiving the file. "It always hits the fan eventually, after all."

"Yes, ma'am."Jacob agreed with a smile. "Did you need us for anything, Commander?"

She shook her head. "Just doing my rounds, Jacob. Carry on." The marine nodded, turning back to his task immediately, stepping further down the room to investigate some scorch marks in the wall panels. Garrus lingered for a moment, a curious, unreadable expression crossing his face.

"Are you sure you don't need anything, Shepard?" The turian asked, his eyes filled with a knowing concern.

_Of course he would notice..._ Mia sighed. "Nothing I can't handle on my own, Garrus." She replied, a small, honest, sad smile appearing for a moment. "I can deal."

Garrus stared at her for a moment longer, the tiny yellow dots of his eyes reading her face for something before he nodded once and turned away.

Kasumi was nowhere to be found, but that was not unusual. Of all the people she'd brought together for the mission against the collectors, Kasumi was the only one who had managed to maintain her 'lone wolf' qualities. Of course, for a master thief with a tendency to abuse her active camoflage, this was hardly surprising. The hooded woman spent much of her time alone, keeping her thoughts and opinions mostly to herself unless Mia directly asked her for them.

"EDI." Shepherd spoke aloud to the empty observation room.

"Commander?" The AI's voice resonated out of a number of speakers in the room.

"When was the last time anyone saw Kasumi?"

"Not since the escape from the Collector's hive station, Commander. However, she did forward a report to Dr. Chakwas, detailing a handful of minor injuries, none of which require dedicated medical attention."

Shepard frowned. "I've asked you to stay out of private emails."

"And I have, Shepard. The doctor has kindly taken to forwarding all pertinent medical data to me, as a precaution."

"I see." Mia said, allowing a slight note of apology into her voice. "I apologise for the assumption. Thank you, EDI."

But of course, as she turned to leave the room, the ship's AI spoke up again. "Commander, when you have a moment, I would like to speak with you. Privately."

Shepard sighed. "I'll find some time."

Shepard paused outside of the door to the arid life-support chamber

Legion was hip-deep in the central console of the CIC when the elevator hissed open, his hands clamped around a large metal box. As she watched, his synthetic muscles gave a tremendous heave, and the device was torn out of its position with the sound of screeching metal and the electrical popping of wires. The Geth turned the device over once in his hands, studying it for a moment, before nodding in apparent satisfaction and stepping over the railing, out of the console.

The glowing optic sensor turned towards her even before she'd stopped a few feet away. "Shepard-Commander." Legion acknowledged her presence in his usual toneless voice.

"What, exactly, did you just do?" She asked, knowing the AI construct would not appreciate the niceties of small-talk.

The geth held up the now slightly smoking metal box. "Clear instructions on the discovery of monitoring devices have been given. We are carrying out those instructions. This device was observed sending out a highly encrypted transmission sequence at regular intervals to an unknown location."

Mia shook her head in exasperation. "Smug bastard had access to the CIC the whole time."

"Agreed."

"Then thank you for taking care of it. Do you require any repairs? You haven't submitted a casualty report yet."

"Negative. We are able to function at an acceptable capacity."

The commander frowned. "But not full capacity?"

Legion's optic plates twitched, and Shepard had the oddest image of a raised eyebrow for a moment. "Affirmative."

"Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Unknown. We require more time to adequately build a consensus."

"Please take the time. I'd be more at ease knowing you weren't shorting yourself for my sake. And it makes my fingers itch to see that hole gaping open like that."

"Understood. We will affect repairs at our earliest convenience."

"I do have one rather important question, though." She leaned back on the railing and took a second to look the Geth over. "Now that the Collectors are gone, what will you do? Return to the Geth, or some other course of action?"

Again, the plates around his 'eye' shifted. "Collector mission secondary objective. Reaper threat still paramount. This unit will remain in service until they are neutralized. Or until we are destroyed. Whichever event precedes the other chronologically."

Shepard blinked. "That almost sounded like a joke, Legion."

"Geth do not joke." The sniper replied, turning to leave. "Not intentionally."

Damned if she wasn't starting to like that machine.

Mordin was, as usual, working away at something on his lab table. Today, however, there was just a little bit of frenzy in the mad Salarian's eyes. The doctor muttered hurriedly to himself as he mixed and measured and glanced from display to display.

"Mordin?"

The scientist didn't even look up.

"Are you okay? The mission is over, you can take a break you know…"

"No time… Never time…" Mordin mumbled, still staring down at the scrolling display before him. "Too much… Too much…"

Mia placed a hand on his arm, and Mordin twitched violently away from the contact. "Oh! Shepard. Did not see you there."

"What's got you all worked up?"

The twitchy scientist blinked twice before nodding shortly. "Collector neutralization allows for beginning of new projects. Have time now to fully indulge in research ideas created during mission. Require proper team to complete in a timely manner."

Shepard frowned. "I'm sure we can arrange to get you a few extra pairs of hands once we get back into Citadel space. Why are you so concerned about completing these projects, Mordin?"

The Salarian took a breath and turned away, pacing slightly as he collected his thoughts. "Projects vital to survival of Shepard's team." He said after a moment, the uncharacteristically short reply startliong Mia with its bluntness.

"What?"

Mordin pulled up his Omni-tool, a holographic display flickering up in front of her with a numbered list on it. "Projects number seventy-seven, arranged in order of priority. Have started work on projects one through five, but have deemed one through eleven to be of dire priority. Success must be achieved within one standard galactic month, or…"

Mia stared at the scientific terms that overflowed through the words on the screen, but only caught a few here and there, including 'skeletal reinforcement', 'gene therapy', and 'Drell respiratory system'. "You're working on… Curing Thane?"

The scientist blinked twice before answering. "Among other projects, yes." Mordin turned away, babbling a tirade of calculations and theories, but Mia's thoughts were lost in the screen that floated in front of her. She said the only thing that came to her mind aloud.

"Why?"

"New career path necessitates expansion of ideals. Projects designed to alleviate pressures of life among crew. Repairing Krios' lungs. Reinforcing Joker's bones. Projects to reduce likelihood of casualties in future missions." Mordin was giving her his undivided attention, again a rare thing from the scientist. "Also… Tired of loosing associates in the line of duty."

Shepard smiled, a true smile for the first time that day. "I'll get you some staff. Carry on, Mordin."

The doctor nodded once and immediately turned back to his work. Shepard paused at the door on her way out. "Thank you." She said softly. Two huge yellow eyes glanced up as she left, and a small smile appeared on the salarian's thin lips.

_Only one left…_ "EDI? Is Thane available?"

"**Mr. Krios is currently asleep in his quarters. Shall I wake him, Commander?"** Came the smooth reply.

Mia sighed. _Guess I'm off the hook._ "Negative. I'm not feeling well. I'll be in my quarters if there's an emergency, otherwise I would like some time to myself."

"**Acknowledged."**

And then, there was silence as the lift doors closed in front of her. Shepard leaned against the wall as the lift slowly started to rise to the captain's cabin, her eyes closed. For all that the day was over, she knew it would come again.

And again, and again…

In her mind, Mia shuddered, pushing away at the thoughts that closed in around her. _"A Shepard tends to her flock, and at times, fights off the wolves…"_ Her mother's words, spoken so frequently in her youth, came unbidden to her thoughts, and she sighed heavily.

Wolves are one thing, but doubts... Fears…

The doors hissed open, and Shepard sat heavily in the chair at her desk. Her private terminal flickered on, various datastreams and reports flashing on her desktop, most of them flagged as important. Next to it, a small picture frame flickered on, and her eyes froze on the blue-skinned face on the display. Cybernetic implants she had never needed or wanted instantly focused on a number of key blood vessels and blind spots that were common to all asari, with only minute variance based on the 'father' race of the individual. But it was not the rush of tactical data that made her heart sink through her synthetically-reinforced stomach.

Liara… Her hand closed around the picture frame, and gently lifted it closer. Her fingers traced the gentle lines of her once-lover's features as her mind traced the memories of the last time she had touched those lines herself. And now, her soul mate was broken, and all that was left were those memories.

Memories and tears…

* * *

Across the stars, another hand lay on a similar picture, one scrounged from the extranet, taken by a fan of the commander on the citadel. Azure fingers traced an outstretched arm, and then the picture flickered, snapping to another, taken from a security camera in the Illium port authority. The lines were still there, but… Different.

She had felt the muscular weave under the synthetic skin. She had seen the nanyte scars, and the subtle glow of bionic circuits behind her emerald eyes. And beneath all that, she had felt the pulse of significantly stronger biotics than she had remembered. But the signature in those soft vibrations of dark energy was unmistakeable.

She had been there. _Alive._

And Liara had pushed her away.

The young maiden bit her lip as the picture flickered again, to another photo, this one scavenged from the remains of the _Normandy SR1_. It had cost her a fortune, but the picture of her commander in her dress white uniform was worth the cost.

Liara's heart fluttered as she watched the slowly flickering pictures, her mind wandering to memories of happier times. So great was her distraction, that she missed her door hissing open, and the soft swish of a silk dress as heeled shoes walked into her office. She looked as a happy gurgle sounded behind her, startled, but holding it inside.

"Lisa, I asked you to knock." She scolded gently, turning to the young human woman with an amused smile on her face. "Although, I suppose you can be excused, considering why you're here."

Lisa smiled, a small blush creeping up her cheeks. "Yes, ma'am… I'm sorry, ma'am, but… Well…" She held up the bundle in her arms. "Listen."

"Ommah! Ommah!" The sound melted her heart, and she broke into a full smile. A tiny blue-purple hand reached out of the blanket and grasped her fingers, and she chuckled at the small sounds of contentment that were issuing forth from her daughter.

"Yes, baby. Momma's here…" She said softly, taking the child from her new assistant. "Momma will always be here…" Liara stared down into her daughter's eyes, loosing herself in their emerald depths. "You may go, Lisa. Thank you for bringing her to me."

Lisa smiled knowingly and bowed before leaving the room. Liara didn't watch, her attention stolen away by the tiny baby in her arms. "What am I going to do with you, little Shepard?" She asked, cooing slightly as her daughter took one of her fingers into her mouth, sucking and chewing on the digit.

"A'da?" The baby asked, popping the finger out of her mouth.

Her mother sighed. Asari children were known to develop quickly, and her daughter was no exception. At only a year and a half, she was acute enough to have noticed that her father, or 'Arda' in the case of a female sire, was not present in her life. "I don't know, baby… I just don't know…"

* * *

A man sat at a terminal, watching in frustration as, piece by piece, his job was being stripped away.

He was the overseer of observations for the _Normandy SR2_, and his bugs were going offline faster than flies assaulting a geth dreadnaught. He was down to watching a single camera feed, and less than a dozen datastreams, most of them in Shepard's cabin, and therefore of minimum use, as the marine appeared to be sleeping.

And even as he watched, that accursed geth infiltrator came into view, and the last camera feed fritzed into static.

The Director could feel his blood pressure spiking, and he knew he couldn't do anything to stop it.

But he sure as hell could do something to get back for it.

Pressing a button on his chair, he barked an order into his comm.

"Get me the new director of the Lazarus project."

The man smiled cruelly as he heard footsteps rushing about in the room behind him.

Oh yes. That bitch would pay.

* * *

A/N: Continuing... Tiger Blood... Interdimensional Warlock... Winning... R&R... Stay Frosty... E. Red...


	3. FYI

Just dropping an FYI in here. For whosoever enjoys this story, be advised that I'm rebooting the story with just a little bit more backstory. Starting, say, with Shep's childhood?

So this'll be going bye bye in a few days, and be replaced. Ultimately, this is for the good of the story, so watch and shoot, people.

And, as ever, stay frosty.

-E. Red


End file.
